Daily Inspiration: Meet Che Yeh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Che Yeh.

Hi Che, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Taiwan and raised between China and Taiwan. Being in constant movement since childhood makes me wonder about the formation of identities and therefore, I have been trying to use artistic practices to figure out the intricate web of connected matters in relation for the past few years.

Before working with sculptural objects and time-based media, I studied photography. It was then I found myself working more with the physicality of the photograph than the mere representation. So I started to work on video and sculpture with the aim create spaces that embody my concerns. Working this way helps me think and act more freely in time and space. In addition, my MFA program is an interdisciplinary one, with a heavy emphasis on liberal art studies. Through thinking within the arts and humanity realms, I was exposed to different modes of thinking and methods of materializing. That definitely help shape my art practices.

I always consider making art as a way of understanding myself, my surroundings, and things that draws my attention. For example, the experiences of living in the US as a foreigner for about four years gave me so many puzzling feelings and questions that I want to unpack little by little. And I usually failed in trying to pin them down in languages. Looking back to my recent works, I found myself working and thinking more about the history of racialization and how it intersects with plants, edible matters, and the ways these environments and structures condition the life experiences of various laboring bodies. What really excites me is seeing these seemingly distanced subject matters speak to each other in a specific space and time. And I really enjoy working within the confluence of things.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I never expect becoming an artist to be a smooth road. One of the most unexpected challenges that I found myself facing now is to persuade myself to commit to making things. When I’m stuck with no idea, everything seems more exciting than going to the studio and starting to work. I could easily spend a day scrolling through my phone, replying to emails, doing laundry, and even cleaning my room. So it has been hard to tell myself that I have to show up for my art practices.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Using time-based and sculptural mediums, I examine the moments when geographically and historically distant bodies came into contact with each other and the ways they are collectively marked by concurrent sociopolitical conditions.

My research-led process usually takes the form of multimedia installations, involving differently scaled moving images and constellations of transitive processes and temporal materials such as food fermentation, distillation, living plants, moldy printed matters, polaroid photographs, and so on. Together, they form systems of relations that emerge from the entanglement between subjects such as migration, the history of racialization, homosociality, and ecology.

Methodologically, I’m guided by “critical fabulation”, an idea proposed by Saidiya Hartman that centers on speculation within the gaps in historical narratives. In my project Rehearsal For Encountering, for example, I consider the intimacy between the Asian indentured laborers and enslaved Africans in the Mid-19th century Caribbean by bringing together the distillation and fermentation of soybean, living soybean plants, and video documentation of my lived experiences in making the work. Through the invocation of bodies in movement, the work provokes ruminations on the way forgotten histories circulate in the present and further imagines the fertility of the matters absent, unattended, and unarchived.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I’m a relatively shy person and sometimes it can be awkward for me to do networking. It might sound cheesy but what really works for me is to be genuine toward every encounter I have. I’m not comfortable when having to talk to strangers because I want something out of the conversation. I talk to people because I’m truly interested in what they are doing and want to know more about them.

Contact Info:

• Website: cheyeh.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/che.yeh/

Image Credits
Yingheng Huang, Che Yeh